Within the last week my husband and I both had dreams that we were eating forbidden junk food. Fritos were my weapon of choice…and Cheetos were his. I find that interesting because even though we both like Fritos and Cheetos, we rarely used to eat them. For the first few days of our pledge we were both constantly feeling like we accidentally ate something we shouldn’t have because we forgot to double-check the ingredients. I am happy to say those unnecessary feelings of paranoia have started to dissipate now that we are getting the hang of playing by our new rules.
On another note, I was absolutely stuffed after dinner last night. I think I ate a little too much which is unfortunately easy to do when you are eating real food. I have been trying to scale back my portions from what I used to serve myself, and for some reason I am still struggling with this. The thing is, you don’t have to eat nearly as much “real food” to fill up as you would processed food (like white breads and packaged items full of various sweeteners – both which mainly provide you with empty calories). We have also found that the previous meal seems to hold us over for much longer. On many occasions by the time lunch or dinner roll around, I am not even that hungry.
Pictured is my daughter’s plate from dinner last night. We all had the same thing, and I probably should have fixed myself a kid-sized plate too. What you see is a whole-wheat buttermilk cheese biscuit, kale chips, and mashed potatoes/turnips/cauliflower topped with bits of bacon. We have been receiving a weekly CSA box from Poplar Ridge Farm and this week we got both cauliflower and turnips. I had some potatoes from my last visit to the farmers market and decided I should just try to boil and mix all of these together with a little added butter and salt of course. And it worked!
After dinner I continued working on my experiment of making good sugarless homemade ice cream, and last night I hit the jackpot. I cannot wait to post the recipe for the pecan/maple vanilla ice cream that we had because it was the bomb! It did not feel like we were eating a substitute version whatsoever and if given the choice I would absolutely choose this over any store-bought ice cream. Oh how I love my ice cream maker!!
Why cant you eat mac & cheese on a real food regimen? Cheese, milk, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat flour, salt & pepper, peas, maybe some diced onions…all real food. And it’s got fat in it so it’s filling, compared to kale and apples which are not. If you ate the kale with bacon grease drizzled over it or ate it with cheese or in a meat soup or put some nut butter on the apple or had some fullfat yogurt or cheese with it—you would stay full longer.
It’s not about calories, it’s about satiety. And that comes from fat.
We all feel the opposite regarding the filling qualities of real food. It kind of makes sense to me since kale has significantly less calories than, say, mac & cheese…and an apple significantly less calories than a candy bar, etc. I had just chalked it up to the idea that we are consuming less calories since most of the foods we’re now eating are naturally lower in calories than the processed junkfood we might eat otherwise.
We have all been feeling hungry and have found that our meals aren’t seeming to hold us over as much. My boys (4 and 6) are wanting snacks constantly. All day long. I guess you may not have advice about this since your experience was so different.
The inspiration of the phrase “Bomb It”.
I do this with frozen raspberries or strawberries. It is sooo yummy! My husband insisted on buying a Ninja blender and it came with this little food processor that is just amazing. I throw a cup of frozen berries in there, a tad bit of cream and honey or agave nectar, delish!! Now, if only I could figure out how to make chocolate ice cream!! Or coffee ice cream. Mmmmm.
Did you know that you can make banana ice cream with just one ingredient? LOL…just freeze the banana (cut up) and then add to a food processor (I have a tiny little cheap version and it works great) with a tad bit of water. It comes out creamy. You can blend up some blueberries to drissle over the top maybe with a little bit of honey if you like. It’s so good. You will be amazed!
I am definitely going to try this…thanks!
It sounds very good sweetheart. Love Mom
Lisa,
Cannot wait for the ice cream recipe!! My hubs just bought me one so that I could make some organic for us and didn’t want to make it w/ all of the sugar or sub Splenda…. Looking forward to see what you have come up with!